


A Perfect Recipe

by Neilikka



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, Bad Cooking, Banter, Cooking, M/M, date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29862579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neilikka/pseuds/Neilikka
Summary: Sirius has asked a girl for a dinner date at his place. Luckily his new co-worker actually knows how to cook.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	A Perfect Recipe

Remus was sitting in the break-room of his new work place half listening the conversation while sipping his coffee. He hadn't had time to get to know any of his co-workers very well yet, but they seemed nice enough. Most of them were older ladies, who seemed to adore the only other younger member of the staff, Sirius, who was telling about a girl he was seeing.

"I invited her over to my place on Friday and promised I'd cook. She's vegan and I have no idea what to make."

"Oh. You young people have all these weird food things. I never know what to cook for my grandchildren these days."

The ladies started to complain about the weird ways of their descendants and the chatter went on for the rest of the break. When they started to walk back to their work, Remus caught up with Sirius.

"I could recommend you some recipes, if you want. For your date. I was a vegan for a while during university," Remus said to him.

"Oh, that would be perfect!" Sirius grinned.

"Are you a good cook?" Remus inquired.

"I'm no professional, but I spend a lot of time in the kitchen," Sirius shrugged.

"Okay. I'll look something up for tomorrow. Is that okay?" Remus smiled.

"Sure. The date is on Friday, so that leaves me time to do the shopping."

***

Friday night, Remus was sitting in his new home contemplating if he felt like unpacking, when his phone rung. No-one really called him these days, so he was quite startled by the sound.

"Remus," he answered.

"Hi! I'm sorry to call you, but I'm panicking a little. If you aren't busy, could you maybe help me a bit? I don't know what happened to the chocolate mousse, the pasta seems simple enough, but whose idea was it to make bread from scratch? This is Sirius," an anxious sounding voice replied.

Remus smiled to the thought that there might be enough guys calling him for cooking advice to not recognize Sirius.

"I'm not doing anything. Do you want me to advise you over the phone or I could stop by, if you're not too far," Remus shrugged.

They talked for a moment and found out they lived only a few blocks from each other, so Remus pulled a coat on and stepped out of his flat.

***

"Food hates me, we are going to eat crackers and the love of my life is going to dump me!" Sirius announced dramatically when he opened the door for Remus.

"I'm sure it will be fine. Could you show me what's going on?" Remus asked calmly.

Sirius led Remus into a kitchen that looked like a war zone. There were dishes everywhere and unidentifiable goo on the counters, a lump of pasta was floating in a sauce pan and everything was covered in cocoa powder.

"What happened here?" Remus asked in astonishment.

"The chocolate mousse exploded," Sirius said solemnly.

Remus couldn't help laughing and Sirius looked put out by it.

"I'm sorry," Remus said still giggling. "You said you spent a lot of time in the kitchen and the recipes were quite simple."

"You should have known I was lying!" Sirius exclaimed.

"How could I possibly have known that?" Remus asked, but Sirius just scowled. "Fine. I guess we should start with the clean-up."

Remus gave Sirius simple tasks while they cleared up the mess he had made and soon enough the kitchen was clean enough to actually start cooking. Remus left Sirius in charge of the huge amount of washing-up he had managed to make and started to prepare the dinner he'd planned.

"I'm sorry I ruined your night," Sirius said.

"Not much to ruin. I just moved here, so I don't know anyone and my home is full of boxes. My plan was to unpack and watch the Great British Bake Off," Remus replied.

"Oh my god! I love that show! I bet I would be better than some of them. Baking can't be that hard," Sirius grinned.

Remus rolled his eyes, but didn't point out what kind of a mess Sirius had made with a four ingredient chocolate mousse.

They chatted about the show and other things while preparing Sirius' date. After Sirius was done with the washing up, he started to poke around Remus' cooking and asking all sort of questions.

"Do you know why my dessert exploded?" he asked.

"Well I wasn't here, so I can't be sure. Someone could have sneaked in here and planted a bomb somewhere. Or you put a raw avocado and cocoa powder in a shallow bowl and your mixer threw the cocoa powder everywhere. Do you think one of those might be a likely scenario?"

"I knew James would try to sabotage me, but I didn't expect a bomb!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I'm sure that happened," Remus deadpanned.

***

Finally everything was nearly ready. Remus explained the rest of the steps to finish the meal and helped Sirius to set the table.

"I think your date must be here soon and you should be able to finish this on your own. Could I use the bathroom before I head home?" Remus said.

"Sure. It's just through there."

When Remus got back to the hall. Sirius was standing there with a phone in his hand.

"You won't believe this!" he shouted visibly upset. "My date just texted me to tell she can't make it tonight. After all the trouble I went through to cook for her!"

"Oh, that's too bad. Is she okay?"

"Yeah. She said something came up. Would you maybe want to stay and enjoy this nice dinner with me?" Sirius asked almost shyly.

"Why not. I can't leave you alone with all this food," Remus smiled. It was a while since he'd spent an evening with a friend.

***

They finished the cooking and sat down for the dinner. Luckily Sirius had gotten over his disappointment quickly and was once again smiling at Remus. The candles they had set up earlier and the bouquet of roses set quite a romantic atmosphere and a silly idea popped into Remus' head.

"You know, if this was a rom-com, there wouldn't have been any date in the first place and you just lured me here under false pretense," Remus joked and Sirius looked quite flustered. Remus didn't want to seem like he was hitting on the guy who was supposed to be on a date with someone else, so he continued: "And if this was another kind of a movie, there would be an axe under the couch."

Sirius laughed: "No axe. Feel free to check. Besides I would have murdered you before letting you eat all that delicious food."

"I guess that would have been smart thing to do. But not all axe murderers are smart," Remus replied.

"That might be true," Sirius admitted. "But since we have established, we're in a movie-like situation here, what's your tragic backstory?"

"What makes you think I have one?" Remus asked startled.

"Everyone in movies has a tragic backstory," Sirius shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"Do you really want to hear it?" Remus hesitated.

"Of course," Sirius encouraged him and put his fork down.

"Um. I grew up in a small village in Wales. You know the kind of village where everyone knows everyone and everyone's ancestors knew everyone's ancestors, but my parents moved there just before I was born. They didn't want to raise a child in London, but it wasn't great to grow up as the weird kid of two Londoners who decided to play old MacDonald and have a farm. I was bullied a lot and things got even worse after a boy that I thought was my friend, outed me to the entire school. My best friend as a kid was actually a donkey called Peter, so it was quite lonely. I went away to uni and thought that I'd never go back, but right before my graduation, my dad got killed by a drunken driver. My mother had been ill for a while and since there was no-one else to take care of her, instead of finding my dream job, I moved back to Wales to a village where everyone hated me to live with a mother that didn't recognize me. After she passed, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. So now I'm here. Was that tragic enough for you?"

"Brilliant. That donkey best friend is going to look great in the flashback scenes," Sirius said and the mood turned lighter.

"I know. Donkeys are the best. Your turn now," Remus sighed.

"Well my family is rich. Like old money, mansions, servants kind of rich. But they are also horrible, racist and unscrupulous. My brother and I were raised by a set of nannies and taught to see everyone below us. After I was sent to school, I made some new friends and learnt that nothing was like I had always thought it were. So I started to grow into an accepting and understanding person that my parents tried to suppress when I came home for holidays. I finally ran away from them and went to live with my best friend at sixteen. Haven't seen my parents since. My life turned better after that, so I can't compete with you, but sixteen years of suffering has to count for something."

Remus couldn't believe the casual tone they were talking about their past, but it felt good to talk about everything.

"Yeah, but I can't expect that everyone has as impressive tragic backstory as I do," he smirked.

***

Their conversation kept flowing, they were laughing and Remus couldn't remember when he last had such a good time. Sirius kept complementing the food and complaining his lack of cooking skills.

"Why do you have so well furnished kitchen, if you don't cook at all?" Remus asked.

"My best friend likes to cook and we lived together after uni. He left me most of the stuff when he moved in with his girlfriend," Sirius explained.

"Why didn't he help you tonight?"

"Well that was my first plan when I promised to cook for the girl, but the bastard ditched me for his girlfriend. He totally doesn't deserve me," Sirius said and sighed dramatically.

"I can't imagine anything being more important than your date," Remus deadpanned.

"I know. I should have picked a better brother. What kind of person cares about their future in-laws' anniversary dinner anyhow?"

Remus couldn't help but laugh.

"Would you like to watch the GBBO while we eat dessert?" Sirius asked and jumped on his feet.

"Of course. That show is pure brilliance."

***

They had watched the Great British Bake Off and enjoyed the chocolate mousse Remus had made. It had been a great evening and Remus didn't want to overstay his welcome.

"It's getting late. I'd better be going," he said and stood up from the couch.

"Oh, okay. Thanks for your help and the company. I had a fun evening," Sirius smiled.

"Me too. Thanks for having me."

"Would you maybe like to do this again?" Sirius asked.

"Help you cook for a date?" Remus had hoped they might become friends, but maybe not solely based on him helping Sirius set up dates.

"No, no. I meant would you like to spend more time with me? Perhaps in a nice restaurant since I couldn't cook a meal if my life depended on it. As a date?" Remus gave Sirius a puzzled look and the man hurriedly continued: "Or as friends, if you aren't interested in a date. Whichever suits you. You said you didn't know anyone here."

"I would love to spend more time with you, but what about the girl?" Remus replied feeling confused.

"What girl?" Sirius asked, looking equally confused.

"The girl you were meant to meet tonight." Sirius had referred to her as 'love of my life' earlier.

"Oh, that girl. I don't think that would have worked out. She didn't even have a tragic backstory. I think I'd much rather live happily ever after with you," Sirius smirked.

"Sounds like a plan. Good night, Sirius," Remus said and gave a shy kiss on his cheek.

Remus had already ran off to the stairway, when he heard a quiet "Good night."

***

The same night at a local pub:

A gorgeous blonde walks into a pub. She sits by the bar with a deep sigh.

"What can I get for you?" the bartender asks.

"Strawberry margarita, please."

"A bad night?" the bartender inquires while making her drink.

"Kind of. I was meant to have a date actually. We have been to a couple of dates before and I thought it was going well. Today we were supposed to have dinner at his place, but just as I was stepping out of the door, he texted me, quote, somethin came up, gotta C N C L. S. end quote. Not even proper sentences or an apology. That guy better be in a hospital right now. I'm not even sure, if the S is meant to be sorry or his signature. Damn Sirius."


End file.
